Nostalghia - Ciscandra Nostalghia

Questions: Stuart Millen

Nostalghia are one of those acts you can't really categorise. The tag "post-apocalyptic gypsy punk" goes part of the way, but in reality, you just have to listen for yourself and make up your own mind. Glitchy, etherial, jarring... Sounds reminiscent of Nine Inch Nails, Bjork and the Knife... Australian audiences will get to experience the wonder that is Nostalgia with the band head to Australia for the first time for next month's Soundwave festival.

Taking time out of her evening in Los Angeles, vocalist, writer, artist Ciscandra Nostalghia spoke to Caught in the Mosh about singing in the shower, the art of music and Roy, her octopus...

You’ve recently been added to the massive Soundwave lineup, which starts next month. This will be your first time touring Australia. Are you looking forward to your visit?Oh, definitely looking forward to it. I’m really excited. I think it’s going to be a beautiful time.Many bands see Australian summer music festivals as a bit of a holiday. Have you had any thoughts as to what you might do in your time between shows?No, not really. I think I’m just going to take every day as it comes and hopefully visit some places and just write music.Soundwave is traditionally seen as more of a punk/metal/heavy rock orientated festival? Do you enjoy the challenge of playing at event where you are seen as not fitting into the norm?I do think it’s interesting. And I suppose it could be a challenge. But I also think that the dichotomy is nice because people aren’t expecting it so it’s even more jarring than it would be had we been something that made a little more sense... With what we do... But I like the jarring aspect because it really wakes people up emotionally and visually. It’s shocking. And everyone needs a little jolt every now and again (laughs).You’re a self-taught musician. What lead you to pick up your first instrument?Well, I was a dancer for many years and I just decided one day that I couldn’t do it any more because it didn’t encompass everything that I wanted to give out. I wasn’t able to utilise every outlet. And one day I was singing in the shower and I thought” oh, I’m not so bad”, so I started putting a lot of my poetry to melodies. And then I got kicked out of my house. I lived in the piano room on campus and I just taught myself how to play. I started writing from then on and I just completely lost myself in it and haven’t really been able to get out of it since!You’re still writing your poetry, releasing it online. Poetry and lyrics are essentially the same thing. How do you decide which words make it into song and which stay as spoken word?I’m not really too sure. I guess certain words have a little bit more of a musical feel than others. But recently, I thought I was going be writing a poem but I ended up turning it into a song. So I definitely take pieces from my poetry and put it into my music. And I’m sure I take certain evocative emotions from my music and put it into poetry. So it just goes hand in hand. I mean, there’s a music to words, even if it’s not really audible. There’s a certain feel to words that lends itself to music a little bit more.

You have a very interesting, mixed family heritage. How much of an influence has this had on your music and poetry?It greatly impacts it! I was lucky enough to be around so many different cultures and traditions and accents and languages. And I was also very sheltered as a child, when I was growing up, so I pretty much lived through my understanding of the cultures around me. I didn’t have many of friends, didn’t really know many people outside of my family, so it definitely plays a huge role in what I write and how I feel. And luckily enough, the cultures that were surrounding me were very intense, so I think that comes through in mymusic as well.Your music videos are beautiful. Do you have much input into them or do you let others interpret your music?I think it really depends on the project. I do tend to have a lot of input into the visuals because there’s only so much someone else can understand of your vision with them interpreting it themselves. But, with that said, I’m always open to other people’s interpretations because sometimes it’s really interesting and it gives another side to what you had initially been thinking of. There are all these different metaphors. It’s like you can look at a sentence in multiple ways. You can look at visuals in multiple ways. I don’t really have any static way of doing things. I like to ebb and flow with whoever we might be working with at the time.Your album I am Robot Hear Me Glitch was recorded in Roy’s bathroom. That’s a seriously odd location. What lead to that?(laughs) There wasn’t much space where he was living at the time! And I think you get interesting acoustics in a bathroom. There’s a natural reverb to it. And it’s also kind of uncomfortable and I think that when you put yourself in a uncomfortable position, you’re almost bound to... suffocate yourself so much that you come out with something that you wouldn’t have had you been comfortable. I don’t really like comfort when I’m creating because I think too much comfort stops you getting everything out that you should be getting out. It’s like when you’re uncomfortably sweating. You sweat out more of the liquids in your body than you would when you’re not surrounded by heat. I don’t know if that makes sense! (laughs). It does in my head!

Speaking of recording, your new single, You + I was released late last year and your new album is on its way. How’s it coming along? When will it be out?It’s coming along really well and the release date is the 1st of April. Which is, oddly enough, April Fools Day! (laughs) haha! The jokes on everyone (laughs). But it’s coming along really well and the visuals are really exciting. We worked with this photographer, an artist, named Sarah Sitkin. I really respect her. So it’s coming along really really nicely. The EP is already out on iTunes. It’s calledI’d Still Kill You. What a nice title, huh? (laughs) That’s the one that will be released in Australia.

When you say the visuals for the album are coming along nicely, are you talking specifically album artwork or will there be some sort of visual component to it as well?Well, I was involved in the photos she took... she took some photos of me, some photos that we visually created together and we also have a video that’s coming out for the You + I single. But that’s not with her. That’s with another artist, Niko Sonnberger.

You have very visual elements in all of your works. In this age of the Internet, where people just take things for free, do you think the inclusion of additional visual components in music releases could help encourage people to return to buying music?I definitely think that it shouldn’t be one-dimensional, where you just release music out into the world. I think the beauty of music is that it does encompass all the different forms of art. And to not utilise that is a shame. Especially as an artist. It would be a shame. There’s multiple ways to describe an album, whether it’s a music video or just you speaking on camera, talking about, perhaps the feeling of the album... I’m not a firm believer of speaking about the meanings of individual songs because I leave that up to the listener’s own interpretation, and interpretation is so important in art. But there’s definitely many different facets, you know? The look of the album, the fashion side of it, as well as the visual side and the songs themselves. So, I don’t think there’s any one-dimensional vision for this album specifically, because, like you said, it’s a very visual thing. It’s a journey. The album itself is a journey. So I’m hoping to reflect that in how we put out our other forms of art as well.Obviously Soundwave will be a huge stage, but I believe you like to perform in small, intimate, unique venues when performing your own shows. Do you have any visual component to goes along with those smaller shows? Certainly. When we started out, we played a lot of little spaces that I would completely transform. You would walk in and you’d literally feel like you’d been transported to a different dimension. We used to do that a lot. Now that we’re touring on large stages, we don’t really have that ability to transform those stages. Well, not at this point at least (laughs) . But when we do get the option to use visuals, I have created a film... ahh, what is it called... umm... projection art... for use in the set. And as time goes on, I’m really excited to start expanding because I have a lot of ideas for live shows that I can’t wait to try.Your recorded songs are quite complex. Is it difficult rearranging tracks to be played live?Well, luckily, we really have it down to just three people live. So right now, we have to keep the band small. It’s easer to transport us around different countries. The band is small like that. So we do have to figure out who we’re going to delegate different parts and who plays what. But primarily, when I first started, I used to play harp, piano and guitar, but now I really prefer to be free and just sing. So Roy is just like an octopus up back! He plays multiple instruments at the same time; drums and piano and different electronic things. And then we have a cellist who takes over the string parts, with interesting reverb and effects pedals. So, it’s really not as confusing as it seems (laughs) . It’s pretty easy to delegate the parts. But I’m sure eventually it’ll become more complex, where we can have an entire orchestra on stage and a choir and multiple musicians. That’s when it starts to get more complicated (laughs) . But right now, it’s pretty easy...

Nostalghia will be touring Australia for the very first time for Soundwave 2014. Tickets on sale now from Soundwave and Oztix.